YH 


NO.  159. 

The  Hermannsburg  Mission. 

Compiled  from  Missionary  itevieAV. 


The  story  of  the  conception  of  this  mission, 
the  years  of  wonderful  preparation  and  its  final 
accomplishment,  reads  like  a  fairy  tale;  or  per¬ 
haps  better  still,  like  one  of  our  Lord’s  miracles 
It  tells  how  a  man  prayed  and  the  people  be¬ 
came  interested.  He  and  they  continued  to 
pray,  and  interest  became  enthusiasm  and  the 
people  offered  themselves  and  their  means  to 
help  carry  out  their  pastor’s  plans  for  amission 
in  Africa. 

The  Hermannsburg  Mission  had  its  beginning 
literally  in  the  soul  of  Louis  Harms.  The  grace 
of  God  in  his  heart  was  the  impulse  which  gave 
it  power  and  carried  it  on  to  its  great  results. 
To  understand  the  character  of  the  work,  it  is 
necessary  to  know  something  of  the  life  of  the 
man. 

Louis  Harms,  the  son  of  a  Lutheran  pastor 
and  the  founder  of  the  Hermannsburg  Mission, 
was  born  in  Walsrode,  Germany,  in  1808.  Even 


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as  a  child,  he  showed  aptitude  as  a  scholar. 
At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  entered  the  University 
of  Gottingen,  where  he  remained  three  years. 
The  most  unblushing  unbelief  prevailed  here  at 
this  time  and  its  effect  on  young  Harms  was  to 
make  him  search  for  the  truth.  He  traversed 
the  whole  circle  of  the  sciences,  but  found  no 
peace  and  came  to  the  point  when  he  said, 
“There  is  no  God.”  But  one  night  when  study¬ 
ing  Christ’s  intercessory  prayer,  God  revealed 
himself  to  the  struggling  youth  and  henceforth 
he  was  one  of  his  chosen  vessels.  Until  1843,  he 
was  employed  as  tutor  in  two  different  families, 
and  even  then  was  a  witness  for  Christ,  for 
we  read  that  his  sermons  and  Bible  classes  were 
much  blessed.  Two  calls  reached  him  curing 
this  period,  one  from  the  mission  house  at  Ham¬ 
burg  where  his  services  were  desired  as  tutor, 
and  the  other  from  New  York,  where  he  was  in¬ 
vited  to  serve  as  preacher.  Both  calls  were  de¬ 
clined,  as  he  believed,  in  deference  to  the  Divine 
will  he  was  designed  for  Hermannsburg,  and 
kept  waiting  for  it  till  the  hour  came. 

In  1843,  he  went  to  Hermannsburg  to  assist  his 
father  in  his  parish,  and  at  his  father’s  death 
in  1849,  he  became  sole  pastor  there.  Very  soon 
the  zeal  and  earnestness  and  spirituality  of  the 
new  pastor  began  to  yield  rich  returns.  The  at¬ 
tendance  at  church  increased;  reverence  for  the 
Bible  grew;  there  was  more  conversation  on 


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sacred  things.  And  now  the  heart  of  the  pastor 
began  to  warm  toward  the  millions  in  heathen¬ 
dom,  especially  in  Africa,  and  he  often  made  it 
the  subject  of  his  Sabbath  discourse  and  very 
often  the  subject  of  conversation  in  his  visits 
among  his  people.  They  soon  caught  his  spirit 
and  began  to  talk  of  the  work  among  themselves, 
and  then  some  began  to  give.  Their  first  contri¬ 
butions  were  a  silver  penny  from  a  child,  six 
pence  from  a  poor  laborer,  and  six  shillings 
from  a  widow.  This  enthusiastic  pastor  then 
urged  his  people  to  give  themselves,  personally 
and  practically,  to  the  work,  and  in  response, 
twelve  came  forward  and  offered  to  go,  one  of 
whom  gave  his  farm  as  well  as  himself.  With 
the  income  from  this,  a  training  school  was 
opened  for  these  twelve  with  a  course  of  instruc¬ 
tion  extending  over  four  years — both  scholastic 
and  industrial. 

The  shaping  of  the  mission  may  be  said  to 
have  been  taken  out  of  Harm’s  hands  just  now. 
He  had  not  planned  a  mission  of  colonization , 
but  it  was  thus  the  Hermannsburg  Mission  took 
form  under  God,  and  the  circumstances  which 
developed  it  are  as  follows:  After  a  year  or 
two  had  passed  in  the  preparation  of  the  twelve, 
a  number  of  German  sailors,  recently  converted, 
sought  admission  to  the  training  school.  Their 
suggestion  was  to  found  a  colony  near  Boney, 
in  Western  Africa,  and  under  the  superin¬ 
tendence  of  Christian  missionaries,  seek  to  sup- 

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press  the  slave  trade.  This  resulted  in  peas¬ 
ants,  who  had  no  missionary  gifts,  asking  to  be 
sent  as  settlers,  and  some  of  the  villagers  as 
tradesmen  or  mechanics.  Of  the  sixty  who  thus 
offered,  eight  were  chosen.  Of  the  sailors  men¬ 
tioned,  only  two  endured  the  tedium  and  strain 
of  study. 

.Tust  here  the  pastor  himself  was  greatly  en¬ 
couraged  and  at  the  suggestion  of  the  sailors, 
conceived  the  idea  of  building  their  own  ship  for 
mission  purposes.  In  course  of  time,  by  faith, 
work  and  prayer,  the  ship  Candace  was  built 
and  paid  for  and  dedicated  to  the  bearing  of  the 
Gospel  to  the  South  Africans.  A  service  was 
held  on  board  October  28th,  1853,  at  Hamburg 
before  sailing  for  Mombas  and  the  Galla 
country,  via  the  Cape  and  Port  Natal.  To  each 
class, — sailors,  colonists,  officers,  missionaries, 
— Pastor  Harms  had  something  separate  to  say, 
but  to  all  he  laid  special  emphasis  on  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  prayer.  ‘‘Begin  all  your  work  with 
prayer;  when  the  storm  rises,  pray;  when  the 
billows  rage  round  the  ship,  pray;  when  sin 
comes,  pray;  and  when  the  devil  tempts  you, 
pray.  So  long  as  you  pray  it  will  go  well  with 
you  body  and  soul.” 

On  reaching  their  destination  their  faith  and 
zeal  were  put  to  the  first  and  severest  test.  The 
Mohammedan  powers  at  Mombas,  jealous  of  all 
foreign  influence  and  especially  opposed  to  the 
incoming  of  Christian  missionaries,  compelled 

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the  Hermannsburgers  to  depart.  The  Candace 
then  put  back  to  Nata],  where  she  had  stopped  a 
few  months  before,  and  received  a  glad  recep¬ 
tion  from  some  of  their  own  countrymen,  from 
missionaries  of  other  lands,  and  by  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  colony.  Without  renouncing  the 
hope  of  yet  reaching  the  Gallas,  on  which  their 
hearts  were  deeply  set,  they  settled  down  to 
work  where  they  were.  On  the  19tli  of  Septem¬ 
ber,  1854,  with  five  ox-teams,  they  reached  the 
seat  of  their  first  and  central  station,  which 
they  called  by  the  dear  home-land  name  of 
“Hennannsburg,  on  a  large  farm  of  six  thous¬ 
and  acres,  called  Perseverance,”  situated  on  a 
branch  of  the  Umvoti.  Their  purpose  was  to 
strike  out,  as  opportunity  offered,  in  different 
directions,  especially  into  Zululand,  even  to  the 
Gallas.  They  had  already  entered  on  their 
work  by  making  tours  of  observation  and  by 
studying  the  language  with  other  missionaries, 
and  aiding  them  as  best  they  could. 

Their  next  work  was  to  build  a  house  in  which 
to  live  and  a  place  in  which  to  worship.  To 
this  they  devoted  themselves  at  once  and  yet 
kept  up  their  study  of  the  language  and  lost  no 
opportunity  to  teach  the  people  whatever  would 
be  helpful  to  them,  both  in  this  life  and  the 
next.  The  carpenter  with  the  best  workers  in 
wood  went  to  the  “bush”  for  timber.  The  smith 
made  ready  a  smithy  for  work  in  iron.  The 
farmer  gathered  a  native  force  to  care  for  the 


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teams  and  help  him  in  husbandry.  The  mason 
with  a  few  good  helpers  began  to  made  brick. 
The  thatcher  worked  in  the  garden  until  he  was 
wanted  on  the  roof.  The  cook,  as  yet  without  a 
kitchen,  had  a  laborious  business  to  feed  so 
many  hungry  people.  They  planned  to  build  a 
house,  120  feet  by  40  feet,  with  eight  dwelling- 
rooms  and  twelve  bed  rooms,  a  large  dining  and 
sitting  room,  a  large  kitchen  and  a  long  hall 
running  through  the  centre.  They  took  their 
meals  at  one  table  in  the  common  dining  room. 
Here,  too,  they. met,  morning  and  evening  for 
family  worship.  Later,  as  the  number  increased 
by  new  arrivals  from  the  training  school,  they 
built  a  similar  house  a  half  a  mile  away. 

Before  three  months  had  passed,  four  natives, 
a  married  couple  and  two  others,  who  had  been 
under  instruction,  came  to  their  teachers  with 
the  desire  to  be  baptized.  After  some  weeks  of 
further  instruction,  they  were  examined  before 
the  congregation,  accepted,  baptized,  and  made 
the  nucleus  of  a  church -among  the  Zulus. 

Meantime  the  frequent  reports  sent  to  friends 
and  pastor  in  the  homeland,  kept  the  missionary 
zeal  at  high  tide.  The  training  school  was  kept 
full,  usually  with  about  fifty.  In  1856,  a  second 
company,  chiefly  farmers  and  maids,  was  found 
ready  to  go  out:  in  1857,  still  another  company 
of  forty-six,  of  whom  twelve  were  missionaries, 
was  sent  out;  and  again  in  1860,  twenty-four  set 


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sail,  of  whom  four  were  missionaries,  the  rest 
colonists.  All  this  led  to  the  frequent  founding 
of  new  stations,  so  that  in  six  years  from  the 
beginning  of  their  work  at  Hermannsburg,  they 
had  ten  stations,  four  in  Natal,  three  in  Zu In¬ 
land  and  three  among  the  Bechuana,  and  had  \ 
baptized  fifty  heathen.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
decade,  in  1864,  they  had  founded  twenty-four 
stations  and  started  two  more  and  baptized  190 
converts.  How  well  founded,  planned  and 
managed  was  Pastor  Harms’ mission  enterprise 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  lived  and  prospered 
marvelously  after  his  death,  which  occurred 
November  14th,  1866. 

At  the  Christmas  festival,  held  in  1870.  when 
the  pastor  and  people  were  accustomed  to  review 
their  year’s  mission  work,  the  report  showed 
thirty-seven  stations  in  Africa,  also  five  in  India 
and  one  in  Australia.  Two  brethren  were  about 
to  leave  for  California  to  work  among  the 
Chinese  of  that  State.  The  South  African  sta¬ 
tions  continued  to  increase  until  they  numbered 
fifty,  when  twelve  or  fifteen  of  them  were  swept 
away  by  war,  some  afterwards  being  rebuilt. 
Prom  a  report  of  1891  we  learn  that  there  were 
at  that  time  fifty-nine  stations  and  fifty-nine 
missionaries.  The  baptisms  for  the  year  num¬ 
bered  2,380,  and  the  membership  was  18,284. 
The  entire  amount  subscribed  for  the  mission 
that  year  was  about  $62,500. 


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In  1897,  the  income  was  $80,325.  The  expenses 
were  heavy  on  account  of  the  famine,  the  rinder¬ 
pest  and  the  plague  in  South  Africa. 

At  the  head  of  the  mission  at  this  time  (1899) 
is  Pastor  Egmont  Harms,  a  nephew  of  the 
founder,  with  an  assistant,  Pvev.  G.  Oepke. 
They  adhere  to  their  early  principle  not  to  col¬ 
lect  or  to  gather  funds  through  organized  socie¬ 
ties.  The  purity  of  Lutheran  doctrine  is  em¬ 
phasized  more  than  in  any  other  mission. 

The  Hermannsburg  Mission  is  a  transcription 
of  the  Saviour’s  charge,  “Have  faith  in  God.” 
It  is  studded  all  over  with  answers  to  prayer 
and  glorious  exploits  of  faith.  Pastor  Harms 
was  a  man  of  faith.  He  made  his  work  whether 
at  home  or  abroad,  a  work  of  faith.  He  had 
faith  in  God  and  faith  in  his  people.  He 
was  a  man  of  prayer.  Of  God  he  asked  in 
faith— the  help  he  needed  from  God;  of  his  peo¬ 
ple  he  asked — in  faith — the  help  he  needed 
from  them.  J* 

Published  by  the  General  Literature  Committee 

OF  THE 

Woman's  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  or 
the  Lutheran  Church 

(General  Synod.) 

2319  Maryland  Ave.,  Baltimore.  Md. 

1899. 

2  CENTS  A  PIECE.  15  CENTS  A  DOZEN. 


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